"Queen of the Adriatic"--her aspect is like a dream and its history like a romance. A city built of 100 little islands built on stilts in the 5th Century A.D. by peoples escaping the mainland became the richest, most powerful city of the Middle Ages--stretching its boundaries to the whole Adriatic down to Greece.

It soon becomes a rich commercial center, trades with the Orient, and wins supremacy in the East by the 12th Century. In the 14th and 15th Centuries, Venice is at the height of her power and prosperity.

It is from here that the Crusades depart during the 9th - 11th century.

Only with the conquering of the new world does Venice loose its importance. Rich palaces and patrician residences of the aristocracy of the past ornate its numerous canals. The Grand Canal is the largest of the one hundred and fifty waterways which intersect Venice, and is nearly two miles in length.

There is no city like it. There are no cars, no horses, no dust, no smoke, only the lender black gondola with its steel prow, shaped like the comb or some siren, glides smoothly along the canals.

Here we visit the Doges Palace which reflects the glory and greatness of the Republic of Venice. The Doge was the King, the Dux.

The great Venitian Renaissance painters such as Tintoretto, Veronese, Giorgione, Tiepolo frescoed the various rooms of the Palace.

Then we pass from the Palace to the dungeon by way of the Bridge of Sighs.

When Napoleon saw Venice and St. Marks' Square he said "this is the most beautiful sitting room in Europe." The Basilica of St. Marks on one side, the bell tower overlooking the Square. St. Marks Church rich in oriental mosaics and gold typical of the Orient The Church is like a jewelry box full of the finest and richest jewels.

"There is a glorious city in the sea! The sea is in the broad, the narrow streets, Ebbing and flowing; and the salt sea weed Clings to the marble of her palaces."                                                    ---Rogers